MB1019 Overland Camper

Some technical details about Berta, our Mercedes-Benz 1019 AF

Berta on the highway in Germany

If you know anything about the Mercedes model codes for trucks, you should recognise the 1019 model as a 10 ton truck with roughly 190 horse power; Mercedes still numbers their trucks like this. Why Berta has 12 tons instead remains Mercedes’ mystery to explain… AF stands for “Allrad Fahrgestell” = all-wheel-drive chassis (as opposed to AK, which would be a “Kipper” = a tipper truck).

The images on these two pages are mostly collages from our rather large collection, which we published previously on Facebook. If you would like to see more photos of the build please head over to our Facebook Albums (scroll down a bit).

23 Responses

Hi, Jurgen and Yasha. It’s all started with your comment on our Montevideo street art pic on Instagram that mentioned that you also have some Uruguayan street art photos. Out of curiosity I decided to check; found your blog and almost forgot what I was going to do. Wow, it is so cool what you are doing! Berta is awesome, and I can imagine how much fun she (and, of course, you ;) ) is having in South America. I wish that one day we could do something like this. Perhaps, when satellite internet finally becomes affordable reality… Meanwhile, we perpetually slow travel around the world but constrained by internet connection necessity. Meanwhile, I am looking forward reading about your adventures. Cheers!

Hi Elena. It all actually started when I read your post on ‘free for all Friday’ that you had just begun on Instagram! I’m so glad you got lost in our site – it’s why we do it. We want to inspire people by the way we travel. We would appreciate it if you shared some of our stuff around with other people who might enjoy it and don’t know about us yet. I do love the fact that the internet brings the travel community together in so many different ways. Your use of ‘slow travel’ has piqued my interest – I’m off to check out your blog now.

Hi, Peter. Whatever size you choose you will need tires which take the extra weight on a single wheel. Depending on your choice of vehicle (8 hole or 10 hole rims, size of wheel arches) you will have more (or less) sizes to choose from. Most commonly people, who want to go on real world wide travel, decide on standard trailer tires because they are more widely available in different countries than odd military sized tires. We have 385/65 22.5 on rims with ET120 (that’s the size of the lip which holds the rubber inside the metal rim). Expect to pay €350-600 per tire, plus just under €100 per rim.
A German website, Pistenkuh , once published a comprehensive article on tire choice.

It was fascinating to read about the conversion from fire engine to home on wheels, especially from the point of view of the vehicle. It must have been a lot of work, but the end result looks comfortable.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Notify me when new comments are added.

"Keep up with Joneses" - sign up for our newsletter!

you MUST enable javascript to be able to comment

Follow:

Hello & Welcome

Meet Yasha and Juergen. Our travel blog is atypical because we travel differently, not flying from one dream destination to the next. Our choice instead: to take it slowly, take side roads, discover places aside from the typical "bucket list" and guidebook highlights. We drive and live in our self-built overland camper, called "Berta". You can read more on our "About Us" page.

We love sharing our impressions and knowledge gained along the way. If you want to explore Latin America in your own vehicle, you will find a wealth of information on our site. So stay around and explore with us!

NEVER MISS AN UPDATE:

Join our mailing list and receive an email when something important is happening at dare2go.com!

*)required field [OUR PROMISE: we will keep your address private and won't spam you either!]

OUR SHOP for unique gifts:

Current Location:

August 10 – Ibarra
We had come to Ibarra to get a visa extension. After several days trying to get through the bureaucracy, we gave up yesterday because we just don’t have enough time left on our vehicle permit. We will now leave Ecuador for Colombia before August 22.